Okay, I have been researching for years and years and have come to a dead end. I do apologize in advanced for the very long post below.

I am looking for the software or device that makes the three alert tones that my Police Dispatchers use prior to dispatching.

These tones are:

Steady Tone (lasts for as long as the dispatcher activates it-I think its a button?): This tone is the Informational Tone. For example: {Steady Tone activated for 3 seconds} "Holding the air for 218 on an open door, 10403 East Forty-Third, air is held at 2226 hours".

Rapid Beep Tone: This tone is for high-priority or in-progress calls (beep beep beep beep- for as long as the Dispatcher has it held down). For example: {Rapid Tone; Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep } "Reported Outside-Disturbance Sound of Shots, 10403 East Forty-Third. 218?"

Hi/Lo Siren Tone: This is the Officer Assist Tone and again, lasts for as long as the dispatcher has the "button" held down. For example: {Siren Tone} "Assist the Officer, 10403 East Forty-Third, Shots Fired, Assist the Officer"

Now, again, we are not allowed in the Dispatch Communications Center because they think we might distract the dispatchers. Which is understandable.So, with that said, I do not know if it is an actual button that the dispatchers press on the screen or how that works. I do know this:

* The System is completely computerized now. All the Dispatchers have is a phone for when we need to call them or they need to call a Reporting Person/Complainant and a headset for the radio/computer.
* The System WAS an EDACS System and has been upgraded to the APCO-P25 System.
* The radio's were not ALL "Motorola Brand" radio's. The car radios ranged from Motorola to ICOM and the handhelds, well, I do not know on that. I think ICOM though. So I do not know if the P25 Radio System is a Motorola Radio Communications System or not.

So, in conclusion, WHAT makes those three tones? How do they work? How does the dispatcher generate those tones? What software or hardware is used? I have looked at Motorola's website and have found NOTHING. I see all the Dispatch Consoles and all that, but nothing about Alert Tones. This "quest", if you will, started years ago when I worked for an agency where, the "tones" were generated by a small red button on the Desktop Microphone in the Dispatch Center. 1 Press equaled 1 beep on all radio's, The longer I held the button down, the longer the beep was. But it was only one tone. If I wanted the "beep beep beep beep beep", I had to hit the button repetitively to generate that tone. There was no hi/lo Siren tone either. So the way we had it set up was, one long beep was informational, two short beeps was high priority and three short beeps was assist the officer. I then noticed all other agencies in the area upgrading to the tones I have listed above. And i am sitting there all like "what the He**" and thus began my research that, to this day, has not ended. Once I start a project, I can't stop until my curiosity is satisfied. LOL

I do apologize for this long post, however, I am trying to provide as much information as possible in regards to exactly what answers I am after. A link, a picture, a video of how it is used and operate...SOMETHING. And the name/manufacture of the software used (or something similar) by the Dispatchers.

Please, someone help me end this never-ending research project and quest for ANSWERS!!! Thanks.

Firstly, do not post duplicate threads. Pick the appropriate forum and post once.

To answer your question, the tones are generated by the console itself. There is no special/separate software or hardware required, it's a standard feature of just about every console out there going back decades.

Now, as for the "console"....what software can be used for the radio system that generates those three tones? Like I said in my first post, our dispatchers talk through the computer. A headset is plugged into the computer. They have 4 monitors in from of their faces. So they don't have physical radios/base stations anymore. Like back in the day it was a console with a foot pedal for Tx and a headset for listening. Now it's just a computer with 4 monitors per dispatcher (total of 2 dispatchers per zone with 7 zones; so 14 dispatchers during each shift).

You don't see the radio/base stations, but they are there in the back room. The PC's you see run the console software that interfaces with them. Virtual replaces physical, but it's the same thing. Again, it's not separate software that creates those tones, it's part of the Motorola console software.

At my console, I have a touch screen where when I want to "emergency tone out" a unit, I just press it and let it ring three consecutive times. Besides that, we (MetroAtlanta Ambulance Service) don't have any other tones.

These tones are pretty standard on every console I have ever worked on including Motorola, Orbacom/IPC and Harris. They are generally referred to as A1 (attention tone), A2 (solid tone) and A3 (warble tone).

When we installed our first Centracoms back in the mid-1990's, the techs disabled the A2 and A3 tones at management's request to make sure that use of the alert tone would be consistent across all police, fire, and ems. IIRC, it was a simple matter of not placing the icons on the screens via the software.

We use Motorola MCC5500's. They come with the 3 standard--Alert 1 is steady, Alert 2 is a beeping, and Alert 3 is high/low tone. There are space for 10 alert tones on these consoles and all of them are programmable.

If the console can't generate the tones internally, it might be possible to use an external device such as a Zetron Model 25. The Zetron Model 25 can generate different alert tones as well as tones sequences for selectively calling a radio or a group of radios.